Landmarks Preservation Commission March 6, 2001, Designation List 325 LP-2088
(Former) SUFFOLK TITLE AND GUARANTEE COMPANY BUILDING, 90-04 161 st Street (aka 90-02-- 90-04 161 51 Street, 160-02 -- 160-10 90th Avenue and 90-01 -- 90-03 160th Street), Queens Built 1929; Dennison & Hirons, architects.
Landmark Site: Borough of Queens Tax Map Block 9757, Lot 23.
On January 30, 2001, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building, and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 2). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Three witnesses spoke in favor of designation, including representatives of the Historic Districts Council and the Society for the Architecture of the City. There were no speakers in opposition to designation. The Commission has received statements in support of designation from the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, the Friends of Terra Cotta, and the Borough Historian of Queens, Stanley Cogan.
Summary Constructed in 1929, the (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building maintains a commanding presence near the business center of Jamaica, Queens. Designed by the distinguished architectural firm of Dennison & Hirons which was known for its bank buildings, this eight-story structure was built at a time of tremendous business prosperity and building activity. The architects used the Art Deco style enhanced with colorful terra cotta ornament to create a modem and distinctive headquarters for the Long Island based firm, which was organized in 1925 to insure real estate titles, guarantee mortgages, and make loans. Echoing the dominant shapes of the prominent Art Deco skyscrapers of the period in this smaller building, the architects emphasized the verticality of the structure with continuous masonry piers and a variety of setbacks near the top. This arrangement, along with the brightly-colored, terra-cotta panels by noted sculptor Rene Chambellan that are strategically applied to the crown and the second story, make this a truly unique building in downtown Jamaica, and a rare example of the skyscraper style applied to small buildings outside of Manhattan. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
Development of the Area 1 valuation in Queens County.5 Many small-scale Jamaica, one of the oldest settlements within the commercial buildings were erected in Jamaica at this current boundaries of New York City, developed into time, as well as several major office and commercial the leading commercial center of Queens County by structures, including the Jamaica Chamber of 1900 and continues to be the largest and most densely Commerce Building on 161" Street (1928-29, George populated neighborhood in central Queens. The Dutch W. Conable) and the J. Kurtz & Sons Store on Jamaica purchased the land in Jamaica from the J ameco Indians A venue ( 1931, Allrnendiger & Schlendorf, a designated in 1655. The following year, Governor Peter New York City Landmark). When the Suffolk Title Stuyvesant granted a charter to the town, originally and Guarantee Company chose Jamaica for its new known as Rusdorp. headquarters building in 1929, this was the most Following the transfer of power from the Dutch to prosperous commercial section of the borough. It was the English in 1664, Rusdorp was renamed Jamaica, also a center for banking and insurance in Queens, with after the original inhabitants of the region. Queens several other banks and title guarantee companies County (incorporating present-day Queens and Nassau located on the same block. Counties) was chartered in 1683 and Jamaica was one of the three original governing units established there Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company6 (along with Newtown and Flushing). Outside the town The Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company was center, Jamaica was largely an area of farms and founded in 1925 for the purpose of insuring property pastures. The rural village was officially incorporated titles, making loans on bonds and mortgages, and by New York State in 1814. selling guaranteed mortgages. The company, with Jamaica's central location in Queens County, and businessman Willard Baylis as president, was the extensive transportation network that developed in organized in Suffolk County, but had offices in the town during the nineteenth century, transformed the Manhattan, Long Island City, Mineola, and Riverhead, village into the major commercial center for Queens as well as Jamaica, Queens. Its slogan was "A Title County and much of eastern Long Island. The arrival Company that Knows Long Island." Established during of the railroads in the 1830s began this evolution.2 The the period of intense business activity of the nineteen rail lines connected Jamaica with other sections of twenties, the company expanded rapidly, and by 1927 Queens county, Brooklyn, eastern Long Island, and the had acquired another well-known title company, Clarke ferries to New York City. Jamaica's farmland was & Frost. By 1928, the firm needed larger quarters to soon being subdivided into streets and building lots, and accommodate its increasing business and began many houses were erected. acquisition of this site near the commercial center of By the tum of the century, Jamaica's importance as Jamaica, Queens. They hired the architectural firm of a commercial area became evident in the impressive Dennison & Hirons, known for its important bank buildings constructed on Jamaica A venue, most notably buildings in the newly-popular Art Deco style, to create the Beaux-Arts Jamaica Savings Bank Building (161- a distinctive headquarters and unique symbol for this 02 Jamaica Avenue, 1897-98, Hough & Duell),3 and growing business. the neo-Italian Renaissance Queens County Register Office (161-04 Jamaica Avenue, 1898, A.S. Dennison & Hirons Macgregor, a designated New York City Landmark). After Jamaica was incorporated into the Borough of Ethan Allen Dennison (1881-1954) Queens and became a part of New York City on Frederic Charles Hirons (1883-1942) January 1, 1898, additional transportation improvements brought increasing numbers of people.4 Ethan Allen Dennison, born in New Jersey, studied As a result, the population of Jamaica quadrupled architecture at the Godfrey Architectural Preparatory between 1900 and 1920. School and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He During the 1920s, when the major mass transit began his career in the office of Trowbridge & links were in place and private automobile ownership Livingston in New York in 1905,joining with Frederic was growing at an extraordinary rate, Jamaica Hirons to form the partnership of Dennison & Hirons in experienced its major expansion as a commercial 1910. Their firm continued until 1929, including the center. By 1925, lots on Jamaica Avenue between one year (1913) during which they were joined by 160'11 Street and 168'11 Street had the highest assessed Percy W. Darbyshire, creating the firm of Dennison,
2 Hirons & Darbyshire. Dennison won the Medal of The terra cotta used in these buildings was similar Honor of the Society of Diploma Architects of France to that featured by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company in and was a member of the Beaux Arts Society of New a special issue of their magazine devoted to the work of Yark, as well as the American Society of the French this architectural firm.7 This article included an Legion of Honor. After the dissolution of the firm of explanation of Dennison & Hirons' method for Dennison & Hirons, Dennison continued to practice producing the colored terra-cotta panels used on their architecture in New Yark as the head of Ethan Allen buildings. One-quarter scale models were created and Dennison & Associates. Much of his later work was in painted according to their designs. These were then Connecticut, where he lived, and in 1940 he moved his mounted on the building at their exact locations, so that firm to that state. the colors could be adjusted according to the differing Frederic Charles Hirons was born in England but light exposures. After these models were finalized, the moved as a child to Massachusetts with his family. He Polychrome Department of the Atlantic Terra Cotta worked as a draftsman in the Boston office of Herbert Company would create glazes to achieve the desired Hale from 1898 until 1901 when he began to study shades. In this way Dennison & Hirons were able to architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of produce colorful ornament which has remained visually Technology. In 1904, he won the Rotch traveling stunning for many years. scholarship, and went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He won the Paris Prize in 1906, enabling Rene Chambellan (1893-1955)8 him to continue his studies and travel in Europe through Rene Paul Chambellan became a noted 1909. Hirons was always interested in drawing and the architectural sculptor and model-maker whose education of young students. He led his own atelier for sculpture, bas-reliefs, and panels were executed in a several years after his return from Europe, taught number of materials, including bronze, stone, and terra architecture at Columbia University, was a founder of cotta. Born in Union City, New Jersey, he was the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, and served as educated at New York University (1912-14), and the president of the Beaux Arts Society of Architects. He Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (1914-17), and Ecole was named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor Julian (1918-19) in Paris and was a student of the in recognition of his services for architectural sculptor Solon Borglum. He served as a sergeant in the education. In 1929 Hirons formed a partnership with U.S. Army in France in 1917-19. After returning to the F.W. Mellor from Philadelphia for two years, and then United States, Chambellan worked with Raymond practiced under his own name until 1940. Hood and John Mead Howells on the ornament of the Hirons won the competition for the design of the Tribune Building (1924) in Chicago, and participated Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York (1928, a in the design and execution of the ornament of many designated New York City Landmark) as well as important buildings of the 1920s and 30s in New York several courthouses and war memorials. Early works City.9 Chambellan did many of the flat, highly stylized of the firm of Dennison & Hirons include the whimsical designs popular on Art Deco buildings and he worked Childs Restaurant in Coney Island, and such neo on several projects with the architects Dennison & Classical style buildings as the Delaware Title & Hirons, creating models for the terra-cotta ornament Insurance Company, Wilmington, Delaware, the based on Hirons' designs. 10 Kanawha Banking and Trust Co., Charleston, West Virginia, the Purcellville National Bank, Purcellville, Art Deco Style11 Virginia, the National State Bank, Elizabeth, New The Art Deco or Modem classical style of Jersey, and the Trenton Banking Company, Trenton, architecture, which primarily appeared in this country New Jersey. Later in their partnership, Dennison & from the mid-1920s through the 1930s, has been called Hirons designed numerous tall bank buildings in the Art an "avant-garde traditionalist" approach to creating a Deco style, often collaborating with architectural contemporary idiom for buildings of the period. 12 Much sculptor Rene Chambellan for the terra-cotta panels. of the architecture known as Art Deco was based on The State Bank and Trust Company of New York at accepted, standard forms and construction techniques Eighth A venue and 43'd Street, the Home Savings and most of the architects active in this style had Bank, Albany, New York, and the Society for Savings, received traditional Beaux-Arts training in which the Hartford, Connecticut, as well as the Suffolk Title and plan and the design of elevations were the first and Guarantee Company Building were all Art Deco style most important phases in the design of a building. office buildings designed by Dennison & Hirons and However, designers and critics of this time expressed adorned with Chambellan's characteristic ornament. the need for a new style which could be deemed
3 appropriate for the period dubbed the "Jazz Age," with variety of materials. Newly-created metal alloys gave all its accompanying technological developments. Thus interesting effects, but brick and terra cotta were also buildings were given a modem cast through the use of favorites because of their wide range of color and a characteristic ornament, and a variety of materials, textural possibilities. Ornament, usually in low relief some new and some simply used in a new way. The and concentrated on specific areas such as the entrance, popular design and ornamental ideas of the period took the form of angular, geometric shapes such as evolved from numerous influences including: the Paris ziggurats and zigzags, or simplified and stylized floral 1925 Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs patterns, parts of circles, or faceted crystalline shapes. (from which the Art Deco style took its name), the well-publicized designs of the Vienna Secessionists and The Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building the Wiener Werkstatte, and the German Expressionists, In 1928, two lots on the north end of the block as well as American architects such as Frank Lloyd bounded by Jamaica and 90th A venues, and 160th and Wright and Louis Sullivan, current theatrical set 161 st Streets were purchased in the name of Jessica designs, and Mayan and other Native American forms. Baylis, wife of the president of the Suffolk Title and The most well-known buildings of this period were Guarantee Company. One of these was obtained from skyscrapers and their overall shape came about as a the Jamaica Lodge of Free-Masons which had a result of the 1916 Building Zone Resolution of New clubhouse there. 15 The Suffolk Title and Guarantee York which decreed setbacks at various levels of tall Company erected its building on the site in 1928-29, buildings to allow light and air to reach the streets in an but did not take title to the property until May, 1930, increasingly dense city. A series of dramatic well after the building had been occupied. The renderings by architectural renderer Hugh Ferriss company's offices filled the entire structure, including (1889-1962) published in Pencil Points (1923) and in a large, double-height banking room with a mezzanine Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929) significantly which occupied most of the street level space. influenced architects of the period. The drawings and The architects Dennison & Hirons designed many the laws from which they came directed the architects' bank buildings during their partnership, both attention to the building as a whole rather than to a skyscrapers and smaller structures, for the sole use of single facade of the structure, thus altering the whole their owners.By erecting its own building, a company's design process. By visualizing buildings "from every structure became the symbol of the organization and a possible angle" the architect was transformed from a physical embodiment of the business in the greater designer of facades into a "sculptor in building community in which it did business. Banks in masses."13 The zoning Jaw provided architects with a particular, wanted buildings which would draw rational basis for the form and appearance of the customers but also create an image of stability and skyscraper as well as a new source of creativity; reliability. Art Deco style buildings were novel enough historical styles did not seem to express this modem to attract attention, but not so unusual that they would sensibility and consequently, a new "skyscraper style" be seen as eccentric. Dennison & Hirons were able to emerged in the 1920s. Major characteristics of the new satisfy the needs of their customers with buildings that style, as generated in part by the zoning restrictions, were characterized by simple lines, a variety of were sculpted massing, bold setbacks, and ornament setbacks near the roofline, and discrete panels of subordinated to the overall mass. The dramatic decoration, strategically placed on the building's rendering style of Ferriss and others articulated this facades. Frederic Hirons was a draftsman of new modernist aesthetic. In addition, an emphasis on exceptional ability16 and he often worked with modeler the verticality of the tall building derived from the wide Rene Chambellan to create unique panels of terracotta influence of Elie! Saarinen's second-prize winning in flat, stylized designs of leaves, flowers, and competition entry for the Chicago Tribune Building in fountains which added a distinctiveness to each 1923. These same sensibilities and vertical emphasis building. were also often applied to the design of small buildings The architects employed all of these elements on during this period, with owners and designers trying to the Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building. demonstrate their modernity. Eight stories tall, this is one of the larger and more Additionally, architects of this period emphasized unusual structures in the area, with its irregular massing the decorative capacity of the building's surface. 14 at the upper stories and its colorful ornament. As seen While designing in such a way as to make it obvious on the more typical Art Deco style skyscrapers, this that the outer surfaces were not structural but only there building has a distinct base with stone cladding which to enclose the space, contemporary designers used a stops in the piers above the second story and an
4 irregularly shaped top created by several floors of Corporation in the 1980s and the offices are currently setbacks. While this type of massing was originally a used by this group and a number of other not-for-profit response to the 1916 Building Zone Resolution when it organizations. was applied to tall buildings in Manhattan, here the architects used the same idea for its aesthetic Description contribution, since the zoning laws would not have This eight-story office building has designed required setbacks on a building of this height. facades on 161't Street, 90tl1 Avenue, and 16l't Street. Continuous brick piers with recessed windows also The fourth facade overlooks a parking lot and is faced emphasize the height of the building, and stress the with plain brick. Midway across the fourth facade, grid-like pattern of the facade. The spandrels, which rising from the second story, is a narrow light court feature inset brick panels, reflect the interest among Art with a door and window on each story. Near the top of Deco architects for textural patterns on the building's this facade, a neon-lit artwork entitled "Let It Roll" by skin. The brightly-colored terra-cotta panels which are Cork Mareschi has recently been installed. located on the spandrels between the second and third 161 st Street Facade stories are unique to this building. The flat, stylized The main entrance is located on the eastern facade. designs of leaves, flowers and fountains repeat across The building is three bays wide with a double-height each facade, with the panels on the 90tl1 A venue side ground story. The main entrance to the building, which different from those on the two narrow ends. Designed consists of a non-historic, revolving glass-and-metal to draw attention to the upper floors of the building, doorway with a glass transom, is located in the southern brightly-colored and patterned terra-cotta lintels cap the bay, while an entrance to the ground story office space windows of the eighth story and a large terra-cotta via double glass and bronze doors topped by a transom panel is located near the top of each of the narrow is located in the northern bay. Perched on the bronze facades of the building. These sections display a highly lintel of each doorway is a pair of winged griffins with stylized eagle holding a shield, a common symbol on long fish tails holding a tablet. A large plate glass bank buildings and similar to one used by Dennison & window above a painted iron railing fills the central Hirons on their City National Bank and Trust Company bay. Ornate painted-metal, three-dimensional Building in Bridgeport, Connecticut, of the same surrounds ornament each of the three ground-story period. openings and include stylized fountain and flower Following the convention in many Art Deco style designs. Above the first story letters denoting 'The buildings of emphasis placed on the entranceway, in Title Guarantee Company" are applied to the stone this building the two main doors are embellished with facade, replacing the original sign identifying the surrounds formed of painted ironwork using similar Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company. motifs to those found in the terra cotta. In addition a Above a granite watertable, the two lowest stories pair of winged griffins in full relief, holding a shield are faced in ashlar limestone that changes to brick with tops each doorway. While the long facade on 9ot1i a stepped design in the piers between the second and A venue has no entrances, its large, ground-story third stories. Multi-colored, terra cotta panels in a windows have similar, decorative ironwork which has stylized fountain design decorate the spandrels between been painted. the second and third story windows. Between the third and sixth stories, the spandrel panels are composed of Subsequent History brick in a darker tone, with an inset of an embossed The Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company moved square pattern. into theirnew building during the first half of 1929, but Continuous masonry piers run from the ground their good fortune and success was short-lived. By floor through the sixth story. Recessed, paired 1935, the business was bankrupt. Shortly thereafter it windows with one-over-one, double-hung sash are was taken over by the state insurance department and located within each of the three bays, with a narrow, its assets, including this building, were liquidated, continuous pier between the two windows in each pair. although the company continued to be listed at this These piers project slightly above the plain brick address until 1940. 17 cornice at the sixth story level. The building sets back It took many years for the property to clear after from the street at the seventh story, which is topped by the bankruptcy and liquidation. It was finally resold in a continuous, plain brick cornice with a narrow stone 1945 to Frederick C. Trump, a large land-holder and cap. At the eighth story, the building steps back again developer in Queens and Brooklyn. 18 Trump donated and is also narrower, with a single window in each of the building to the Greater Jamaica Development the two side bays. The four windows at this level are
5 segmentally-arched, with broad, decorative, terra-cotta story. Above this are parapets with recessed bays lintels. The brick piers continue above this level with between brick piers which screen elevator equipment a central, stepped parapet ornamented by a terra-cotta and the water tower. eagle holding a shield, which covers mechanical 16011t Street Facade equipment. This facade is three bays wide and is almost the 90th A venue Facade same as that on 161 st Street. Here the entrance is in the The building is nine bays wide on this elevation. southern bay and is identical to the entrance on 161 st At the ground story are single-pane, double-height Street. The central bay is filled by a ventilating grill windows over painted iron railings. Letters spelling and the third bay has a large window opening over "The Title Guarantee Company" are located between painted iron railings. The upper stories have the same the first and second stories. The design on the second arrangement, ornamentation, and setbacks as those on through the sixth stories is the same as on the 161 st l6ls1 Street. Street elevation, with terra-cotta and darker brick spandrels, and continuous piers between the bays. The three center bays rise with continuous piers through the Researched and written by eighth story. The three bays on each side step back Virginia Kurshan slightly at the seventh story, and further at the eighth Research Department
NOTES
1. This section is taken almost in its entirety from: New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, La Casina Designation Report (LP-1940), report prepared by Andrew Dolkart (New York: City of New York, 1996). It is based on H.W. Munsell, The History of Queens County, New York (New York: H.W. Munsell & Co., 1882); Jamaica, Hempstead, Richmond Hill, Morris Park, and Woodhaven: Their Representative Men and Points of Interest (New York: Mercantile Illustration Co., 1894); Henry Isham Hazelton, The Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens Counties of Nassau and Suffolk Long Island, New York 1609-1924, vol. 2 (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1925); Theodore H.M. Prudon, ed., "Jamaica, Queens County, New York: Aspects of its History," unpublished typescript prepared for Columbia University Graduate Program for Restoration and Preservation of Historic Architecture (1975); New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Former J. Kurtz & Sons Store Building Designation Report, (LP-1132), report prepared by Virginia Kurshan (New York: City of New York, 1981); Jon A. Peterson, ed., A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens and its neighborhoods (Queens: Queens College, Department of History, 1983); Vincent F. Seyfried and William Asadorian, Old Queens, N. Y. in Early Photographs (New York: Dover, 1991); New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, (Former) Jamaica Savings Bank Designation Report (LP-1800) (New York: City of New York, 1992), report prepared by Elisa Urbanelli; "Jamaica," and "Queens," in The Encyclopedia of New York, Kenneth T. Jackson, ed. (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995); research files of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 2. In the early nineteenth century, the King's Highway, which led from Brooklyn to Queens along the route of an Indian trail, had become a toll road, known as the Brooklyn, Jamaica & Flatbush Turnpike. In 1832, the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad Company was established. It purchased the turnpike and began construction on a rail line. Two years later the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) was founded. It leased the Brooklyn and Jamaica's right of way, inaugurating service between Jamaica and a ferry at the foot of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in 1836; the line was extended eastward to Hicksville a year later. The opening of the initial Long Island Railroad line through Jamaica established the village as a transportation hub, but other developments increased Jamaica's importance. In 1850, Jamaica Avenue was converted into a plank road by the Jamaica & Brooklyn Plank Road Company, thus improving road transportation between the Fulton Ferry and Queens County. Horsecar lines began operation on the avenue in 1866 when the East New York & Jamaica Railroad Company inaugurated service; the horsecars were replaced by electric trollies in the mid-1880s. In 1860, the Long Island Railroad began service from a ferry landing at Hunter's Point to Jamaica, and in 1869 a rival railroad company, the South Side Railroad, began service between Jamaica and Patchogue. For a schematic history of the Long Island Railroad see "Chronology of the Long Island Rail Road" in Peterson, 27-28. For
6 more detailed information see, Carl W. Condit, Port of New York, 2 vol. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981) and Vincent F. Seyfried, The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, 7 vol. (Garden City, Long Island: 1961-1975). 3. The Jamaica Savings Bank Building was designated as a New York City Landmark in 1974, but the designation was subsequently denied by the Board of Estimate. The building was again designated a Landmark in 1992, but this designation was denied by the City Council. 4. These improvements included the widening and repaving of Jamaica Avenue (known as Fulton Street until about 1918) in 1898; the electrification of the Long Island Railroad in 1905-08; the opening of the Queensborough Bridge in 1909; the completion of the LIRR's tunnel beneath the East River in 1910 (the bridge and tunnel obviated the need for ferries, thus cutting commuting time to and from Long Island and Manhattan); and the completion of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company's elevated railroad on Jamaica Avenue in 1918. 5. Seyfried and Asadorian, 26. The importance of Jamaica's geographic location and the development of the area as a transportation and commercial hub was recognized in the WPA Guide to New York City: "Jamaica, the community around Jamaica A venue and Parsons Boulevard, is the geographical center of Queens. Most of the important Brooklyn and Queens highways that lead to Nassau County and eastern Long Island pass through Jamaica. It is the terminus of the BMT and Independent subways and the principal transfer station of the Long Island Railroad. Along the main thoroughfare, Jamaica Avenue, there has evolved a comprehensive suburban shopping center." The WPA Guide to New York City (NY: Random House, 1939; reprinted NY: Pantheon, 1982), 583. 6. The information in this section comes from a series of articles in the Queensborough Magazine, published by the Queens Chamber of Commerce. For many years, each January issue highlighted banks and other financial institutions in Queens. The information here comes form those magazines in 1928, 1929, 1930, and 1931.
7. "Terra Cotta Work of Dennison & Hirons," Atlantic Terra Cotta IX (June, 1928), n.p. The only other architectural firm to which an entire issue of thi s magazine was devoted was McKim, Mead & White in 1927. 8. Information about Chambellan comes from obit., NYT, Nov. 30, 1955, 33; LPC, Chambellan files; Stern, et. al.; New York Public Library, Artists files; "Rene Paul Chambellan," Who Was Who in America 3 (Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1963), 147. 9. These included the following projects: the American Radiator Building (1923-24, Raymond Hood), 40 West 40'11 Street; war memorials at the New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1925-28, Cass Gilbert), 51 Madison Avenue; the figural sculpture on Pratt Institute's Memorial Hall (1926-27, John Mead Howells), 215 Ryerson Street, Brooklyn; the figural sculpture on the interior of the Williams burgh Savings Bank (1927-29, Halsey, McCormack & Helmer), 1 Hanson Place, Brooklyn; the sculptural decoration, with Jacques Delamarre, on the Chanin Building (1927-29, Sloan & Robertson), 122 East 42 11d Street; the terra-cotta panels (and possibly the sculpted reliefs) of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (1928, Frederic C. Hirons), 304 East 44'11 Street; the terra-cotta panels on the State Bank & Trust Co. (1927-28, Dennison & Hirons), 681-685 Eighth Avenue; the model of and ornament on the Panhellenic Tower (1927-28, John Mead Howells), 3 Mitchell Place; the model of the Daily News Building (1929-30, Raymond Hood), 220 East 42"d Street; the decoration of the Majestic Apartments (1930-31, Irwin S. Chanin), 115 Central Park West; and the ornament on the Century Apartments (1931, Irwin S. Chanin), 25 Central Park West. Chambellan performed a variety of tasks at Rockefeller Center (1931-33, Associated Architects), including creating architects' models, providing technical assistance to other artists, and executing bronze plaques at the entrance to and stainless doors on the interior of Radio City Music Hall, as well as, with Foster Gunnison, producing the central lighting fixture in the auditorium; designing six bronze fountainhead figures in the Channel Gardens; and executing decorative spandrel panels on the British Building and La Maison Francaise. He was also responsible for the ornament on the Airlines Terminal Building (1940, John B. Peterkin, demolished), 80 East 4211 d Street. Of the extant New York buildings listed, only the State Bank & Trust Co. Building is not a designated New York City Landmark. 10. Rayne Adams, "Thoughts on Modern, and Other, Ornament" Pencil Points X (January, 1929), pp. 3-16. An illustration on page 8 shows the architect's sketch and a photograph of the model made from the sketch by Chambellan.
7 11. Much of the information in this section is adapted from: Landmarks Preservation Commission, Barclay-Vesey Building Designation Report LP-1745 (New York: City of New York, 1991), report prepared by David Breiner; LPC, The Long Distance Building of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company Designation Report LP-1747 (New York: City of New York, 1991), report prepared by David Breiner; LPC, Western Union Building Designation Report LP-1749 (New York: City of New York, 1991), report prepared by Betsy Bradley; Rosemarie Haag Bletter, "The Art Deco Style," Skyscraper Style, Art Deco New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975); David Gebhard, The National Trust Guide to Art Deco in America (NY: Preservation Press, 1996), and the Landmarks Preservation Commission research files. 12. Bletter, 41.
13 . Corbett, "Architectme," Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 2 (Chicago, 1929), 275, quoted in LPC, Barclay-Vesey Building, 4.
14. The idea of the surfaces of buildings being treated with little depth, literally as a skin around the framework came from the work of architects of the Chicago School, which in turn can be traced back to the writings of German architect Gottfried Semper (1803-1879). In an essay he included as one of the four basic components of architecture the "enclosure of textiles, animal skins, wattle or any other filler hung from the frame or placed between the supporting poles." Bletter, 61.
15. Queens County Registers Office, Deeds and Conveyances, Liber 715, p.165.
16. Rayne Adams, "Master Draftsmen, XXI Frederic C. Hirons" Pencil Points VIII (July, 1927), pp. 397-410.
17. Queens County Registers Office, Deeds and Conveyances, Liber 3737. P. 5931, and New York City Telephone Directories, 1935-1945.
18. Queens County Registers Office, Deeds and Conveyances, Liber 5037, p. 517.
8 FINDINGS AND DESIGNATION
On the basis of a careful consideration of the history, the architecture, and other features of this building, the Landmarks Preservation Commission finds that the (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building has a special character, and special historical and aesthetic interest and value as part of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York City.
The Commission further finds that, among its important qualities, the (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building was built in 1929 and designed by the well-known architectural firm of Dennison & Hirons; that this eight-story office building was constructed for the Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company whose purpose was to insure mortgages and bank loans, and specialized in such business on Long Island; that the company, in order to make a strong statement of its presence in the business district of Jamaica, Queens, hired an architectural firm which was known for its modem designs in the Art Deco style; that the architects used many elements consistent with tall Art Deco buildings, such as continuous vertical piers with recessed windows, decorative spandrels with textured brick designs, and a varied roofline; that the noted architectural modeler, Rene Chambellan helped create unusual and colorful terracotta ornament which was placed above the second story and at the crown, and which contributes to a prominent and truly unique building in downtown Jamaica.
Accordingly, pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 74, Section 3020 of the Charter of the City of New York and Chapter 3 of Title 25 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates as a Landmark the (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building, 90-04 161 st Street (aka 90-02 -- 90-04 161 st Street, 160-02 -- 160-10 90th Avenue, and 90-01 -- 90-03 160th Street), and designates Borough of Queens Tax Map Block 9757, Lot 23 as its Landmark Site.
9 (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building 90-04 16l't Street, Queens Photo courtesy of Jamaica Development Corporation (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building 160th Street Facade Photo: Bill Neeley (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building Corner of 160th Street and 90th Avenue Photo: Bill Neeley 90th A venue facade details (Former) Suffolk Title Guarantee Company Building
161 st Street facade details
Photos: Bill Neeley Details at roofline, 161 '' Street (Former) Suffolk Title Guarantee Company Building
Detail of main entrance, 161" Street
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(Former) Suffolk Title Guarantee Company Building 90-04 16l5t Street (aka 90-02 - 90-04 16l5t Street, 160-02 -160-10 90th Avenue, and 90-01 - 90-03 160th Street), Queens Landmark Site: Borough of Queens Tax Map Block 9757, Lot 23 Source: Sanborn Building & Property Atlas, Queens, 2000, vol.6, pl.23 .